Bhubaneswar, July 11: Police today arrested a 25-year-old youth for allegedly raping a minor girl whom he had befriended after a chance telephonic conversation.

Mahila police apprehended the accused, Milu Nayak, a native of Kandhamal and a graduate from a well-know college of the city, following a complaint by the father of the 16-year-old victim, who hails from Rayagada district.

The police said Milu, who comes from Belaghara in Kandhamal district, had developed a relationship with the girl, who is a native of the neighbouring Rayagada district, following a chance conversation over mobile phone. Later, he persuaded the girl to visit Bhubaneswar with him.

They reached the city together on Wednesday morning.

“During their telephonic conversations, which had extended over two weeks, the youth proposed her and managed to win her confidence,” said a police officer.

The police said both of them visited a number of shopping malls in the city and some tourist destinations, including Dhauli, the same day. In the evening, the accused took her to an abandoned place near Tankapani Road and allegedly raped her.

Later on Wednesday night, the accused asked the girl to return to her native place and abandoned her at Baramunda bus stand. She, however, called her parents, who reached the city yesterday morning and rescued her from the bus terminal.

The victim’s father lodged a complaint at Mahila police station, and subsequently, the police arrested the youth from his hostel room in the college from where he has just completed his graduation.

“Medical examinations of the accused and the victim were conducted, and the accused was arrested under several sections, including 376 (punishment for rape), of the Indian Penal Code,” said inspector in charge of Mahila police station Sujata Panda.

The police said the accused had appeared the entrance examination for a postgraduation course this week.

In a similar incident in July last year, three persons gang-raped a girl from a city-based engineering college in a moving car.

The main accused, Jitendra Biswal, 28, of Kendrapara district, had asked the girl out on a date after befriending her on a social networking site. Biswal and two of his accomplices had raped her in the Chandaka forest.